Spider Solitaire - A Winning Strategy

By Boris Sandberg

Spider Solitaire is one of the most popular solitaire card games in the world. It is often named Classic Solitaire Game and "the King of all solitaires".

Spider Solitaire is a lot of fun and has to be learned like any game. At first glance, this challenging and time-consuming game seems to be too complicated. But spider solitaire is a very easy game to play once you get the hang of it.

Not every game of Spider Solitaire can be won, but you have a better chance of winning if you plan your strategy carefully. Below you will find several simple rules that can increase your chances of winning Spider Solitaire.

Build sequences of cards by following suit

Whenever you have a choice, prefer building in suit ("natural builds"). Natural build may be moved as a unit to be built elsewhere. This allows you to expose a hidden face down card, which you may now turn over, or expose an empty pile.

Try to expose hidden cards whenever possible

Uncovering hidden cards leads to a new set of possible moves. Besides, it is a way to get empty pile.

Try to make empty piles as early as possible

Move cards from tableaus that have fewer cards. Use empty piles as temporary storage when rearranging cards sequences into "natural" builds as far as possible. Move cards to empty spaces to turn over more cards.

Build on higher cards first

Among the "out of suit" builds, start with those of highest rank. The reason for this is apparent. You can not move "out of suit" build as a unit to another pile. So this build is of no use except as a temporary storage for cards from other piles. If we start with low card, the build will be finished with an Ace very quickly and then it will be useless. Starting from higher cards allows us to get maximum advantage from it.

Get as many cards exposed and arranged in suit order as possible before dealing the next 10 cards from the stock

Otherwise your chances of winning are significantly reduced.

As soon as you remove a suit, arrange the remaining cards into "natural builds"

Use empty piles as temporary storage when rearranging cards.

Spend some time practicing this strategy and soon you will find yourself beating Spider Solitaire faster and more often.